IGF Day 1: Internet Intermediaries and their Role in Freedom of Expression

18.12.2017: This morning I attended a session on Internet Intermediaries at the IGF in Geneva. Some time ago the term was newly coined for certain stakeholders all of them in charge of providing access to various types of content in one or another way. I was curious to learn about intermediaries’ sense of responsibility for children’s safety.

The session featured the a set of recommendations drawn up by a group of experts on behalf of the Council of Europe that shall be adopted by the Committee of Ministers. First it is important to emphasise that these recommendations are very well elaborated. They comprise of two parts namely the obligations of states with respect to the protection and promotion of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the digital environment and the responsibilities of internet intermediaries with respect to human rights and fundamental freedoms.

The recommendations address many important aspects like f. e. freedom of expression and the protection of privacy and personal data. Child sexual abuse material is mentioned in paragraph 1.3.2 as a type of content that does not fall under the obligation for judicial review before restricting access, thus providing for an exemption from the general rule that is very much appreciated for the benefit of children’s dignity. Nonetheless I felt somewhat disappointed when I had to learn that in light of the huge groups of vulnerable people the experts group decided not to mention any of them explicitly in the recommendations. In fact one in three internet users worldwide is a child, so one can not argue that this is too small a group to gain special attention with regard to their safety on the internet.